Max Lamb

Traceability may be an important question when buying food, or ordering from a restaurant but with furniture we are much less concerned by this. Designer Max Lamb might not have intentionally set out to redefine this in furniture, but his short time-lapse films show the materials used and how each piece was made.

As he told Dezeen in 2009 “My furniture is very personal; people only buy it if they respond emotionally, so they’re unlikely to throw it away. Lifespan and the relationship between an item and its user are more important than so-called ecological materials. It’s the culture of disposal that I think we need to address. The materials and processes I use are very durable – you can be very rough with them. And I don’t follow fashion.”

This rings nicely in my ears as I think about the objects I own and what matters to me when I buy pieces… ‘will it last?’, ‘how was it made?’ and ‘will it grow on me or against me?’. Max works to help answer these questions.

Having worked in design for the past decade, Daniel started ateliertally.com as a discussion of timeless, modernist product design. Trained as a graphic designer, he also has an avid interest in typography. You can follow him on Twitter @ateliertally.